Mariette, Auguste

(1821-1881)

   Egyptologist

   Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Auguste Mariette was employed in 1849 as the curator of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the louvre. He was sent the following year to Egypt to purchase Coptic manuscripts. Although he did not accomplish that goal, he took part in the archaeological digs at saqqara, where he discovered serapeum, a necropolis complex (1850). Named director of excavations of antiquities in Egypt by the viceroy Saïd Pasha, Mariette organized an archaeological expedition that undertook digs at Tanis, Abydos, saqqara, Giza, and Thebes. He uncovered the temples of Edfou and Denderah, and brought to light one of the greatest works of ancient Egyptian art: the statue in wood of Cheikh-el-Beled, the seated scribe, as well as the statue in diorite of Khephren. Mariette also launched a campaign against clandestine digs in Egypt and the illicit export of antiquities. In 1863, at Boulaq, he founded a museum whose collection became the basis for the present Cairo Museum. Mariette published the results of his findings in a number of works, among these the Catalogue du musée de Boulaq (1864-1876) and Les Mastabas de l'Ancien Empire (posthumous, 1889). He was named to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1878.